Shopping search engine usually supplies links of property values, such as “brand”, “style”, “color” and so on, for users to chose after a keyword searching or when users are browsing categories, such as “jacket”, “bag”, and so on. There are generally two options.
Option One
In some search engines, after users selecting a property value, the property item corresponding to the selected property value will be hidden. Users have to cancel the selection operation on the selected property value. Otherwise, it will not switch to other property values of the property item, which brings redundant operations when browsing.
Please refer to FIGS. 1-3. In FIG. 1, a classification list obtained by a keyword “coat” input by users includes property items such as “brand”, “hot”, “style”, “recommended shops”, and “color”, etc., and each property item includes many property values for users to choose. It is assumed that users want to see the goods having the property value of “Seven Wolves” in the property item “brand”.
In FIG. 2, when users click the property value of “Seven Wolves” in the property item of “brand”, the property item of “brand” is entirely hidden. Therefore, unless the selected state of the property value of “Seven Wolves” is cleared, it is unlikely to return to the state shown in FIG. 1 to select other property values in the property item of “brand”.
In FIG. 3, when users select property value of “Japanese and Korean personality” in the property item of “style” based on the condition shown in FIG. 2, the property item of “style” will be hidden. This means that if users want to switch the present property value to the property value of “British personality” in the property item of “style”, it is needed to re-move the present choice of “Japan Korea personality”.
It is obvious that the option one guarantees the accuracy of the displayed property value, but can not provide the function of switching to different property values in the same property item directly, which makes that when browsing products of other property values in the same property item, users have to clear the selected state of the original property value, a PV (Page View) is wasted, and the search efficiency is reduced.
Option Two
In some other search engines, it is allowed to switch between different property values in the same property item, however, it is unable to determine whether the search results of combined property values exist.
Please refer to FIGS. 4-6. In FIG. 4, a classification list obtained by a keyword “mobile phone” input by users includes “brand”, “operating system”, “contract plan”, “screen size” and other property items, and each property item includes many property values for users to choose. It is assumed that users want to see the product with the property value of “Nokia” in the property item of “brand” and the property value of “Symbian” the property item of “operating system”.
In FIG. 5, when users click the property value of “Nokia” and the property value of “Symbian”, the search page will show the product icon meeting the search requirement. At this time, the property item of “brand” and the property item of “operating system” are not hidden, and each property item still displays multiple property values for choosing.
In FIG. 6, when users click property value of “iOS Apple” in the property item of “operating system”, there is no search result for the combination of the property value of “Nokia” and the property value of “iOS Apple”.
Thus, the option two allows switching between different property values in the same property item, which has a certain convenience, but cannot effectively determine whether there is any search result. The invalid search will waste a PV, which cannot improve search efficiency effectively either.
In summary, there is a problem of low search efficiency in the existing shopping search engines.